Video: B2B marketing's secret superpower

0:09Kate Rundell: Welcome back to The Walk Podcast. I'm Anna Hamill. For many years, the prevailing perception has been that B2B marketing lags behind B2C and creativity. Too often, B2B marketing has focused excessively on rational features and product superiority at the expense of storytelling, emotional connection and creativity. So why does that matter? Because in B2B, the target customer is very rarely an individual. Purchase decisions are made by groups, buying groups of 10, 12 or sometimes more than 20 different stakeholders. And LinkedIn and Bain research shows that brands recognised across the whole wine group from the start are 20 times more likely to be chosen.

0:55Kate Rundell: New research from LinkedIn's B2B Institute in partnership with Walk & Lions Advisory examined more than 1 ,000 B2B campaigns from Effectiveness Awards, discovering that campaigns that lead with video are significantly more likely to deliver stronger ROI and grow market share. Joining me to discuss this in more depth is Imar Ahmed, who led this research for Lions Advisory and Walk. And later, we'll talk to Vita Millis, global team leader at LinkedIn's B2B Institute, and Kate Rundell, Chief Marketing Officer at Amazon Business, to learn more about what it means for B2B marketers. But before we get into that, a quick message from today's sponsors.

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2:23Kate Rundell: Imad, welcome back to The Walk Podcast. Before we hear from Vita and Kate, can you give us a little bit of context to this research? what were you looking to test and how did you put the research together hey Anna yeah so thanks for

2:35Imaad Ahmed: having me on the walk podcast and uh I would say you know Lions Advisory and Walk have been lucky enough to work with the B2B Institute and LinkedIn for a few years now on a few different pieces of research and for this one in particular we wanted to look at the effectiveness of video within B2B and so if we take a step back um and think of ourselves as for a moment as consumers you know there's been a huge transformation in video over the past 15 years. We think of our own viewing habits, if we think of technological advances, if we think of new digital channels and formats that we're being exposed and we're starting to see more and more of that shift, not only in B2C, but more and more also into B2B as well.

3:18Imaad Ahmed: And so really the question that was put to us was, in B2B, are video campaigns any more likely to be effective than non-video campaigns? And that's what we wanted to test. And to do that, we tapped into Walk's kind of vast collection of effectiveness case studies. And we took 1 ,025 B2B effectiveness cases from the past 15 years, all geographies covered. So quite a nice and vast selection to analyze.

3:47Kate Rundell: And what I would mention is these are all

3:49Imaad Ahmed: awards win award-winning or all awards entered cases so not necessarily reflective of all the b2b work that's going on out there but definitely reflective of some of the best b2b work that's out there so a good set for us to learn from and we split that b2b set into two subcategories the first um had video as its lead channel or within the mix um and when we talk about video as lead or the mix was about any campaigns that include online video, live streaming, video on demand, those kinds of channels and similar. And that was about 60 % of our case study set. The other 40 % was made up of non-video cases.

4:30Imaad Ahmed: So those where video wasn't involved, it wasn't the lead, it wasn't in the mix. And because these awards case studies tend to report on different commercial and brand health metrics, we were essentially able to just compare the two, video versus non-video and come back to our question to see if video campaigns were any more likely than non-video to report on particular effectiveness metrics.

4:51Kate Rundell: Really interesting stuff. So let's talk about some of the key findings, some of those top line findings from this research, because there is some really interesting stuff that came out of it. Do you have any highlights?

5:03Imaad Ahmed: Yeah, sure. And I suppose if we start really by looking at that overarching layer, so video versus non-video. And there we saw that video campaigns were two times more likely to grow market share. They were 1.7 times more likely to deliver stronger ROI than their non-video counterparts. So already we were starting to see some really hard-hitting kind of effectiveness metrics and over-performances for these B2B video campaigns versus non-video. But what we also wanted to see was what would happen if within those B2B campaigns, we just looked at those where video was the lead channel. It was the hero channel of that campaign.

5:46Imaad Ahmed: And there in our analysis, we found that when video was the lead within a B2B campaign, those ones were 3.2 times more likely to grow market share than campaigns that lacked video in the mix. But then digging a stage even further than that, we wanted to look at some of the realities of B2B decision making. So there's a lot of conversation discourse within B2B at the moment around the importance of things like discoverability, salience, how do you build mental availability, memory structures, and so on that are going to help B2B brands get on things like day one shortlist, help them build credibility across the buyer group, and really make those B2B brands feel like a safe and defensible choice.

6:33Imaad Ahmed: So within that context, what else could our analysis show us that would help build out that picture? And there we found that video-led campaigns were 2.2 times more likely to report an increase in search performance against campaigns without video in the mix. So talking to that discoverability idea to some degree, but also 1.3 times more likely to report in increases in awareness versus non-video campaigns. So pointing to that mental availability idea. So it's really interesting to look at the analysis in those different levels and different layers.

7:07Kate Rundell: Yeah, definitely a complex piece of research. Was there any of those findings that surprised you or were unexpected?

7:14Imaad Ahmed: Yeah, great question. So we saw, as I just mentioned that B2B video campaigns had some quite compelling over indexes versus non-video and things like market share, ROI, search performance and so on. And the scale of that was really interesting. But ultimately, I think what was almost more surprising was something that we call the video paradox that we cover right at the start of the research. And this was this idea that despite over indexing across effectiveness metrics, despite video becoming kind of table stakes, if you like, in a typical B2B marketing plan and media mix. Other piece of research that we were seeing was showing a plateau in video budgets.

7:55Imaad Ahmed: So it's performing well, but budgets are flapping. And actually, there was a really good piece from Wistia, which talked to this idea in more detail. And so what we wanted to do with our own case study set was see if there was anything similar that we could see there. And as you remember, we looked at over 1 ,000 B2B cases over about 15 years, and we broke that up into different timeframes over those last 15 years. And we saw that actually at the start of that period, of the B2B campaigns that were entered, 38 % of them included video in the mix or as lead. And that number actually shot up a few years later to 63%.

8:38Imaad Ahmed: So a huge jump in the proportion of cases that included video. But actually in recent years, rather than jump up again, that number's just stabilized. So most recently, the proportion of B2B campaigns that are awards entered that include video is still at about the 60 % level. So we haven't seen a further jump. And part of the question is, well, why is that the case? We can see that video's working. We can tell that it's an expected part of the mix, but why is investment flattening? But more importantly, what we wanted to get into is, well, how can marketers capture some of those advantages of B2B video when it comes to things like storytelling or simplifying complex products?

9:20Imaad Ahmed: It's quite common in B2B or credibility and memorability and how you build those in a way that's going to help B2B brands navigate and ultimately win over B2B buying groups. And I know your chat with Kate and Visa will help us untangle that. So looking forward to that as well.

9:35Kate Rundell: Fantastic. Thank you, Emma. That was really important context to go into our next segment. Back after a short break.

10:00Kate Rundell: brings together decades of trusted expertise from WALK, CanLions, Effie, and Contagious to create industry-defining thought leadership. From crafting the narrative to amplifying it at scale and placing it in front of key decision makers. So your story doesn't just add to the conversation, it defines it. Learn more at lions.co forward slash thought leadership. it.

10:26Kate Rundell: Vita and Kate join us now to explain a bit more about the practical applications of this research within a B2B context and of course what marketers need to know if they're choosing to take this approach. Vita, Kate, welcome to The Walk Podcast. Thank you for having us. Vita, I want to start with you. The B2B Institute at LinkedIn has done some great work to progress B2B effectiveness thinking over the last few years. We've done research with you on the nuances of buyer group marketing and buyability and some of the amazing stuff that Ahmad mentioned before. How does that work form the foundation of the specific focus on video?

11:03Vita Molis: Yeah, I mean, thanks for the question. Overall, what we know in B2B is that no one is actually signing a deal on their own, right? So in order to actually win a deal in B2B, you have to win the meeting that you are not even in. So what that looks like is there's more stakeholders around that table and there's more stakeholders that are actually millennials and Gen Z. So they're getting there's a bigger group. They're getting younger. There's different expectations on what it really takes to convert and what information is required, how it gets to that group. So if you think about that long journey, I think our latest work says that it's 272 days long, like nine months long, 22 people.

11:45Vita Molis: right? And that group is changing. There's really three levers. It's about being discoverable, but by that entire buying group, it's about being trusted and credible and having those signals really land. And really it's about being winnable, which means everyone feels safe to say yes. And we see that in some of our work in that the deals where the whole buying committee knows about your brand, you're 20 times more likely to be bought. So buyability, which is our foundation of how we think about our thought leadership now, isn't just about changing one person's mind. It's about making the decision easier for everyone in the room and even out of the room to say yes.

12:27Vita Molis: And through this work, we've actually seen that video is the fastest route to get to that shared understanding.

12:34Kate Rundell: Really interesting, Kate, I want to come to you now. Could you set the scene for us a little bit on how Amazon Business is currently using video. How does it feature in your planning process and how do the findings from this research tally with your own experience of using video?

12:49Anna Hamill: Yes, happy to elaborate on that. I think first I'll just say that for Amazon Business we do use video across all stages of the marketing funnel but I'll acknowledge that to date we've probably been most successful with our upper funnel mass advertising driving consistent and significant year-over-year unaided awareness improvements. This tracks pretty closely with exactly, I think, what Vita was saying and then the data from the research we heard earlier as well. Just because, especially in mass awareness for B2B, the opportunity for memorability is so vast. I just think about a large volume of very generic, you know, or jargon-filled ads that you see in the B2B space, you know, there's a lot of clutter there.

13:38Anna Hamill: So if you can distill that down to a simple story from the complexity and really break through, you know, video is really the best way to do that. And we've seen that as well there to tell that story, especially visually. And you have a little bit more space than, you know, like a static banner ad, for example. One other area where we've also recently had great success is what we've coined the missing middle or mid-funnel video, really connecting from brand to demand, which is so important in B2B, where, you know, there you can leverage the retargeting from the mass advertising. And it's, you know, we heard earlier about the buying journey getting longer.

14:18Anna Hamill: I personally love mid funnel because you we have more concrete data there, too, versus just like the brand salience at the upper funnel. You know, you get the traffic, the click through rate, some of that concrete immediate results. And for those that don't convert from consideration we still can feed that funnel for demand done then at the same time in mid-funnel you're still forced to simplify the complex and not stuff too many product features in so it really forces you to simplify and take a step back which is the beauty of video for b2b

14:51Kate Rundell: it's really interesting my next question was going to be about the funnel so that's a perfect foundation but have there been any specific lessons that you've learned along the way or hurdles along the way that you've managed to overcome to be successful in this medium?

15:06Anna Hamill: Yes. I think, think about the biggest one is that many people don't have sound on naturally when they're looking for videos. So being able to only tell the story visually without sound is critically important. And so we actually now, as we go through and create videos, we'll do that on purpose to see and use some test cases with customers, you know, people in the office of what do you think this story is? What is it trying to say without the sound on? Even if you have subtitles, obviously the average person isn't necessarily going to read all of them. So that was probably the biggest one. And I think the other one is while many marketers, I mean, myself included, value, I think high judgment or, you know, an Amazon leadership principles we talk about are right a lot.

15:53Anna Hamill: Data is still king in terms of proving that. So I don't typically jump all into one thing before, like a test and learn approach and seeing what the data says before ramping up with it. And video is that way as well. And then to the point earlier that we were just talking about with skepticism, that data can then help set the case either for your leadership team, if they're less familiar with video or marketing terminology in terms of the ROI you can get from it.

16:18Kate Rundell: Vita, I want to come to you. B2B brands face three challenges to succeed in the current B2B landscape. They need to be discoverable, they need to be credible, and of course they need to be winnable. How does video help brands answer each of those three challenges?

16:34Vita Molis: So video is the only format that can scale a human presence, right? And it's really that human connection that we see as being critically important when we think about that buying group. So when it comes to being discoverable, we want to start by being remembered. And actually before you can be remembered, you have to be noticed. So what we found is you have 3.7 seconds as a brand to get noticed. And video is actually more effective than static formats. I believe it's like 1.5 times more. And the reason why is really the humans that are in the loop. So having people included in your video are able to extend that attention window 6.5 seconds.

17:16Vita Molis: And you see that as, you know, human only creative, be it humor or speaking passionately and really believing in what you're saying, that only comes through in a video format. When we think about credibility, we think of video as a vehicle for shared understanding, right? So you may see trust signals that are able to move more in video by featuring executives or featuring creators or subject matter experts that are able to reinforce the credibility that is needed for your deal to move forward. And the winnable stats when it comes to video, I think are my favorite. So we talked about how it's not just the champion, it's the entire buying group that needs to be on board.

18:02Vita Molis: And actually, we found that video is able to reach and drive stronger recall among the hidden buyers, as we call them. So basically everyone outside of the champion. And not only the stats that Imad talked about on driving stronger outcomes, we're also seeing a 3.2x stronger likelihood to drive market share when video is included in the loop. So it's really a phenomenal opportunity for marketers to leverage video more holistically.

18:35Kate Rundell: That's really interesting. As you mentioned, And the research shows a boom in B2B campaigns using videos from the 2010s, from 38%, as Ahmad mentioned, and peaking at 63 % in 2021. But of course, since then, as Ahmad mentioned, growth has been flat or even down a little bit. With so many more video formats available to B2B brands now, what explains the reluctance to invest more, even if they know it works?

19:05Vita Molis: I mean, Kate, I think you started to talk about it a little bit early on. Video is typically thought of as a top of funnel or an increase in brand awareness target. And so there's a bigger opportunity to leverage video beyond just a creative asset in the beginning of the funnel, but actually leverage it throughout the entire journey. So video should be a strategy to think about. And that broadened scope, if you will, will really help video jump off the feed or off the page, if you will.

19:36Kate Rundell: Kate, what's your perspective on that? Do you think that there are any particular misconceptions that B2B marketers may have? What's your experience been making the case that Amazon for video investment is a B2B tool?

19:48Anna Hamill: What I will say is people forget that business customers are still customers. But it's not like a business person goes home, takes off their business hat and puts on their consumer hat. And so there's this notion that they handle things differently and that videos are less relevant or need to be put into business language to make it relevant for a buying decision. but I actually would argue that that's worse because then you don't stand out from the crowd. It's either like throwing money down the drain or at your competitors if you can't differentiate. So what it means in practice is, you know, what I've tried to explain to my leadership, for example, is acknowledging that video is not a mirror of your customer per se.

20:35Anna Hamill: The customer doesn't need to 100 % see themselves. Rather, they should emotionally connect to the story arc. And that emotional insight is what's the memorability and what drives it. And then we do have data to show that that moves it. So kind of that aha moment so that there's a shift with leadership's understanding of how we can leverage video makes sense. And I think I alluded to this earlier, but no more boring briefcases or stock B2B, B-roll footage or business jargon and product specs, just simplifying the message and showing real humans. Vita mentioned things like humor. I think that works very well, you know, within reason, within B2B as well, just to break through.

21:16So from that regard, it's probably the biggest thing

21:19Anna Hamill: I would say. And then the other thing I would just mention is it's interesting. I'm very curious to hear about the research of, you know, video budgets, because at least the way that I do budget, it wouldn't just be video, if that makes sense. You would have your go-to-market strategy or what you're trying to achieve and video very likely is one tactic among many. But I will shut down if someone comes and says, I have to create this video. But why? But why? You know, so just to have on stage at an in-person, you know, enterprise event or, you know, isn't a good enough reason, even, you know, customer testimonial, some of the classic B2B video use cases, it's still like, well, where are you going to use them?

22:00Anna Hamill: How is it going to show up? Because, you know, we heard Vida mentioned earlier about the trust with figureheads or spokespeople in them. And yes,

22:09Kate Rundell: I agree with that.

22:10Anna Hamill: However, I feel like my spokespeople change so frequently that you're changing them out. Or quite frankly, I don't know if our customers really care about my figureheads, you know, like internal people. So I find trying to find that common connection to their business problems out in the world through the storytelling is oftentimes more impactful.

22:31Kate Rundell: Well, that was going to be my next question, actually, because does your strategy look different depending on where the video is going to be used or placed? So you mentioned, for example, a video that may run on a stage at a conference. That could be a completely different audience with different needs to, say, a social video which is placed on LinkedIn.

22:51Anna Hamill: Yes, absolutely. It does. I would still say, though, that we hope to not just use it one place, you know, one and done. and building video modularly if we can for easy changeouts, whether that's different countries or, you know, understanding that leadership may change or, you know, certain scenes need to change is always important just for frugality, quite frankly. But what I do have to say, if we're talking, you know, social video you mentioned on LinkedIn or other places versus maybe more like the tried and true, you know, customer testimonials or how-to product videos, which are also very helpful for customers to just solve things on their own very quickly.

23:33Anna Hamill: I have to say I continue to be amazed and surprised in working with a variety of creative agencies, how many just don't keep up with the latest specs on platforms like LinkedIn or Meta and the need to tailor content to each. And so, you know, just the basics of the sizes and understanding, you know, and it's like a full time job keeping up with it. But, you know, important in our industry. However, you know, what I mentioned earlier, it's I think it's more understanding the intent with video and then the placements can take care of themselves. So, you know, what's the strategy? Are you trying to drive brand memorability and awareness at the top of the funnel?

24:12Anna Hamill: Are you connecting consideration with mid-funnel, leveraging that retargeting where you have more proof points? Or are you driving demand at the bottom of the funnel for that immediate conversion, but you also have leads and pipeline coming out of it?

24:25Kate Rundell: Those questions are really important. Vita, I just want to go back to you. In the report, you say that the opportunity isn't to make more video, to build volume of video, but to make that video work harder for you. What does that mean?

24:40Vita Molis: I think it's exactly what Kate you're talking about right so like to your point we don't want to flood the gates with even more video videos reached a point of saturation which is wonderful I think it's really about changing the job description of what video's role is and thinking about video as part of the different phases in a journey so like what is the job for video in this particular scenario with this particular audience that you're trying to target and really being thoughtful about how video can lean in to help to drive memory, to drive belief, and ultimately to help to get chosen by the entire buying group.

25:19So I think it's really a repositioning, if you will,

25:23Vita Molis: of the role that video plays throughout that journey. And a lot of the, and Kate, like to your point, a lot of the specifics on like what does success look like from a creative perspective, from a format perspective, are critical and need to be considered as you're planning, as you're thinking about your campaigns for the year. Kate, just going back to that conversation

25:43Kate Rundell: about quality versus quantity or quality and quantity, how do you manage that balance at Amazon? How are you assessing that you've got that right so that your video campaigns are having a real impact, not just flooding the zone or filling the feed?

25:59Anna Hamill: Yeah, well, we don't just fill the feed. That would definitely be expensive. I think frugality is one of our biggest leadership principles. So we definitely focus on quality over quantity and find the areas where we believe we have insights and thought leadership to truly make a difference in our category or our space. And then, yes, we can amplify that by leveraging influencers and creators as well as understanding the latest social algorithms and opportunities. But, you know, I don't think we would be viewed as having the highest volume of video content. But I can certainly say I am proud of the quality that's out there in terms of the journey that we've taken.

26:41Anna Hamill: And I'll say one quick thing in terms of a lesson learned. You know, it can be pretty expensive, obviously, to do mass advertising or top of funnel. even if you're trying to do it modularly so you could use it in multiple countries. So when we first were introducing mid-funnel that I mentioned earlier, we tried to scale back and do it pretty shoestring budget. And we looked at it and it was just resonating a little hollow, if that made sense. And it was too like a cliche B2B. So we did have to kind of pivot midstream and just for the production quality to be up there and make sure that we held a high bar for that.

27:16Anna Hamill: And so lesson learned there, too, in terms of not being too frugal, if you will, in terms of the right balance.

27:22Kate Rundell: Absolutely. Vita, where do you think B2B video is going next? And what's on the agenda based on this research that B2B marketers need to be prepared for?

27:32Vita Molis: So to our earlier conversation, I think the planning question is really changing from how many buyers did we reach with our creative or video to how much of the buying group can actually tell our story back to each other when they're in that room making the decision without us. So when everyone can make more video with the rise of AI, the advantage actually goes to those who know what each video is for. What's the job to be done? Where in the journey is that video actually driving to? So some of the things that I think that we'll see is more targets on the rest of the buying group. So think of hidden buyers or influencers and what have you.

28:13Vita Molis: I think we'll see a lot more credibility signals, be it creators or experts that can really speak on behalf. Besides just, you know, having, Kate, as you were talking to, your standard customer testimonials, you'll actually see that come to life through campaigns more. And the big important question is how do we think about measurement and retargeting and a holistic journey approach? Video can help, I think, to thread that needle. So I think those are some of the changes that'll come. The next decade of B2B video, I don't think it will be won by those that make the most video, but actually by those that are able to make the buying group feel most confident in coming to those conversations and making B2B buying decisions.

29:00Kate Rundell: Kate, any final advice for brands from you, from your own experience?

29:06Anna Hamill: Test everything and validate with data and then view spending through the lens of your CEO and CFO rather than CMO. So how are you driving the business with this video you just produced and what's the value and difference it drives?

29:21Kate Rundell: That's a great place to leave it. Kate, Vita, thank you for joining me on the Warp podcast. Thanks for having us.

29:28Vita Molis: Likewise.

29:29Kate Rundell: Thanks to Vita, Kate and Ahmad for joining me to break down this exciting research. if you've found this episode useful walk subscribers can check out the full research right now on walk.com be sure to follow the walk podcast wherever you get your podcasts and make sure you don't miss out on all of the exciting content we have coming up thanks for listening and see you next time